Caged Birds
by Pandora Imperatrix
Summary: Collection of ficlets for the NejiHina Week
1. Day 1 - Family

A/N: I have decided to post these here too, bear in mind I'm yet to find a betareader and that English is not my fist language.

Enjoy.

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 **Day 1 - Family**

It was good that his presence alone seemed to be enough, that he didn't need to say anything, because he knew that no word in any human language would provide her comfort in this moment.

"He was not a good father," she finally said, there was no bitterness in her voice, it actually sounded hollow, detached of all feeling. It preoccupied him more than sentimental words would, and yet he could not move, for he never expected anything than a composed dignity from her.

"But he was a good leader" she turned to face him and his hand was drying her single tear before he could stop himself "I want to keep his legacy alive."

She smiled and pressed his hand closer to her cheek, it was the saddest smile he ever saw, and broke his heart more than the news that his uncle – that he did not love, but haven't hated for years – was dead.

"I want to change the Hyuuga. For him, for his brother, for you… Will you help me, Neji?"

He swallowed. It was the first time ever that she called his name without remembering him that they were in fact family, that his feelings were wrong.

"Yes" he managed to say, and her smile didn't seem as gloomy anymore.


	2. Day 2 - Firsts and Lasts

**Day 2 – Firsts/Lasts**

"Do you remember the first time I called you nii-san?"

"Yes. It was a year after my father died; when they told me that nothing had changed that I was still destined to live as your shadow."

"I'm really sorry. I just wanted to you to feel that I saw you as family, not a servant, not a slave."

"I know that now, Hinata-sama"

But she frowned.

"I must have felt like I was mocking your suffering."

He said nothing.

"You know, that was also the day they said we would be getting married."

He remained silent, but the heaviness of his gaze was gone.

"I don't see you as my brother anymore."

His step almost faltered.

"I wouldn't want you to… after tomorrow."

"Really?"

Her question sounded incredibly sincere, even surprised; if he had a sense of humour he would find that almost comical. Neji nodded. Hinata smiled.

"So today is the last day I'll be calling you Neji-nii-san, tomorrow…" she sighed. "Tomorrow I will be your wife, we will be family in a way that branch or main family will not matter anymore, and no one will be able to say that you are anything but my equal."


	3. Day 4 - Illusion

A/N: Day 3 was a fanart, you can see it on nejihinata dot tumblr dot com slash image slash 134813443922

 **Day 4 – Illusion**

She liked to pretend.

If she saw something in the market that he would like, she'd always buy it.

When the Clan's kitchen would serve kabocha no nimono for dinner, she'd go to bed early in solidarity.

News of her daily life, things their friends did, or even happenings from the family, and anecdotes that she knew that would never make him laugh. Little pieces of life that she still collected to deliver to him.

She still trained in a certain way and in a certain hour, pretended his absence was for a mission, he was talented and very busy after all.

She liked to imagine a well-known pair of white eyes was always following her shadow.

She liked to keep her illusion alive like he was not.

Even if there was no one to silently complain about the cooker's choice of menu; even if there was a whole shelf in her room loaded with things she bought and would never use.

Even if the undelivered words died in her throat, dry and sharp, cutting her insides.


	4. Day 5 - Oath

**Day 5 – Oath**

He had no idea of how he managed it, but he opened his eyes.

She made a sound that made him think of a little kitten, and for a moment of insanity he thought she would threw herself over him, but in the last moment, she held back. She was a well-controlled Hyuuga now; he was proud, but a little sorry too.

"Hinata-sama…"

"P-please don't talk" she sobbed "I thought I lost you, please don't do that anymore".

He prided himself for not owning such a thing as a sense of humour, and regarded disgraceful what most people would find funny – his ridiculous team-mate and sensei combined being a huge example – but if breathing alone didn't make his insides burn like his guts were made of lava, he would have laughed a bit. His mistress could be unreasonable and selfish when emotional.

"What happened?"

"You almost died!"

He rolled his eyes only to discover that even doing that hurt.

"Besides that" he coughed, "Naruto?"

"Still fighting."

"And you are not with him" it was not a question.

"I-I had to make sure…"

"Make sure of what, Hinata-sama?"

"That you were not leaving me" and she started crying again, hard and messy, all her dignity gone. In the past, he would have thought less of her for that lack of control, but now he couldn't think a moment in which he had ever loved her more.

"I made an oath to protect you forever, I won't go back on my words either".


	5. Day 6 – Folklore AU

A/N: Based on a brilliant poem you can read here floydllawtonarchive dot tumblr dot com slash post slash 84188423859

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 **Day 6 – Folklore AU**

She was sent for the tower when she was three.

It was after a failed kidnaping attempt by Kumogakure. Thankfully, she couldn't remember a thing from the moments she was held in custody of her captors. However, some nights in which she couldn't sleep, usually when it was cold like the December evening she was taken from the home; home that no matter how she tried, now she could not remember, like there was almost no reconnection of how her life used to be or the faces of her parents.

They had white eyes, of course. The Byakugan, proudest and most remaking trait of the Hyuuga Clan. Also the source of it's power, she, after all, was captured because of the secrets hidden by her blood heritance.

She had more trouble trying to summon the image of her father; the only recollection of him was of a serious and always distant person. She always felt a little inadequate when they were in the same room.

Hinata had better luck remembering her mother, she had long dark hair – probably like herself – and her face was wet the last time she held her daughter.

She recalled her mother exhaled a flowery perfume, something like lilies or rosemary. There was flowers in her tower, even a small garden she tended with the help of her dragon.

But she couldn't remember her mother's face or the colour of her father's long hair, she guessed it was bluish black, but her dragon said that not all Hyuuga had midnight hair.

Oh yes, she didn't live alone in her tower, she had a dragon and leaving her room for sleeping in the outside, over warm scales and next to a bonfire always sent those thoughts away.

He didn't like to talk often, her dragon, and was of the opinion that words were like a treasure and should not be wasted.

And he knew a lot about treasures.

She knew for a fact that under her tower there is a cave where he keeps gold bars, diamonds bigger than her head and pearls enough to fill a swimming pool.

But now there was no dragon, the garden flowers were not her old friends, and the only treasure belonged to the King Minato, father of the knight that rescued her.

Prince Naruto was very talkative, very sweet, and she was sure that he meant no harm by attending her parents wish and saving her, but the thing was that she was not in need of saving.

She didn't want to go back home, because she did not think of the castle she was born as such, she couldn't care less for being reunited with her family, because they didn't mind abandoning a toddler alone either, and she did not want to marry a Prince and live in a court of strangers.

She was happy in her tower and she missed her dragon.

That was why when he appeared under a disguise of a human knight she was not deceived.

And when she accepted his hand for a dance, she knew, soon, they would be flying again.


	6. Day 7 - Birthday

**A/N: Organizing and taking part of the NejiHina Week 2015 was amazing. Thank you everyone for having me!**

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 **Day 7 – Birthday**

He was sitting over the table, his meal symmetrically disposed and ready to be eaten when his mobile started vibrating. He sighed, it was dinnertime for heaven's sake! And he was ready to turn the damn thing off when he saw her name on the screen.

"Nii-san?" her soft voice said, his stupid heart didn't fail to skip a beat, as usual.

"Hinata-sama."

"Are you busy?"

"No" but he did send a longing gaze at his dinner.

And then she started chit-chatting about the weather, about how expensive was living in Tokyo, and other subjects that he didn't really care about, but hearing her voice was so nice and he was happy she wanted to talk with him form all people. Because he knew she would take forever until she finally started talking about what had her take the phone to call him, Neji decided to eat. It wasn't like he had answer her with actual words after all, humming and agreeing with little grunts usually made their conversation go nicely.

Although their family was rich, her father did not agree with her choice of studying Art, and she left home and lived now by her own means. That made him immensely proud of her but sometimes, more often than he would admit, he made sure she wasn't living out of ramen. She was in the middle of the narrative of her day working in a coffee shop, when he got out of the torpor her sweet voice caused in his mind noticing a change on her tone.

"And then she started yelling at me, oh nii-san, I was so embarrassed. But I swear to you, she did not tell me to not add sugar. It was ok, not nice, but ok on a normal day, I mean, everybody have bad days, but I expected at least a little bit of peace on my birthday…"

Her birthday! He was an idiot!

"Hinata-sama," he said, his mouth still full of fish "hold on."

She heard him hanging up. Shocked and feeling ten times worse than before she started talking to him. But really, what was she thinking? Why would he care about her pathetic life? The screen of her mobile marked forty minutes of conversation, she felt ashamed, did she really talk that much?

Trying not cry, Hinata decided to take a long relaxing bath, but her mind still was self-loathing thoughts.

She fell asleep but was awakened by the doorbell. She didn't want to see anybody. Feeling a little guilty, she pretended to not be at home, but whoever decided to appear at her home in that snowy horrible night, wasn't giving up.

Still wet, wearing just her bathrobe and more than a little pissed she went for the door.

He was holding a tiny container with what looked like pie.

"They didn't have cake. Happy birthday, Hinata-sama."


	7. Day 1 - Marriage

**Marriage**

"Hyuuga Neji? Seriously"

She didn't knock before entering.

"Please," Hinata said before eyeing her sister through the mirror in front of herself, "that was surprising for no one."

"I'm sorry, I was stupid enough to assume that after you gave up on that eye sore moron would develop a better taste in men."

"Why do you hate Neji-nii-san so much?" she applied the last touch of eye make up, "I don't remember he doing anything to you. Actually, I don't remember your two interacting at all. What is it? You had a crush on him and he ignored you?"

Hanabi made a show of snorting.

"As if I'd have a crush on _that_. First, he looks like a young version of _dad_. I mean yikes!"

Hinata turned on her sit to look at the comically disgusted face of her sister directly.

"He does not!"

"He totally does! Also, he acts like someone shoved a popsicle in his ass!"

" _Hanabi!_ " Hinata blushed scandalised, but that only seemed to please the younger girl.

"What? It's totally true and you know it!"

"You're just being mean" she turned her back to her sister and resumed applying make up.

"So," began Hanabi sheepishly, "why you marrying a guy who tried to kill you, again?"

"Urgh, not that again," Hinata rolled her eyes. "That was _years_ ago and he apologised."

"Are you even listening to yourself?"

"Hanabi," she sighed deeply, "it wasn't completely his fault. He was hurting and bottling up his feelings for almost ten years, and I just spread salt over his wound publicly. He lost control."

"Oh, because that makes up for everything, and thank you for reminding me, he also hated you for almost a decade for something that wasn't even your fault."

Sighed again, she didn't expect to Hanabi understand, but why couldn't her sister trust her? Why Hanabi had to be always combative and difficult?

"Why are your bringing this stuff up? This is all past, now. My relationship with Neji-nii-san isn't what it was back then."

"Yeah, I figured, ok? Anyone with a pair of eyes can see that," Hinata saw Hanabi rolling her eyes and blushing a bit, that made her frown. "Also will you keep calling him like that?"

"The first thing you said. What you mean by that?"

Hanabi look at her with impatient disbelief.

"Like you wouldn't know that guy is crazy about you."

Of course, she knew, but she didn't know how to answer that, her heart beating fast as she imagined what face would Neji make if he heard that his feelings were so obvious even Hanabi knew about them.

"Why you seem so opposed to my marriage, then?" asked Hinata after a brief silence.

"Because I don't wanna see you do something stupid. He might be the better for the Clan, and he might love you, but he's still a twat and very different of the twat you used to love. My point is: will his love be enough?"

Hinata was taken back her Hanabi's words and her heart was filled with affection for her little sister. Sometimes, with the hard life she had and the unaffectionate family she was born with, it was easy to forget that she was loved by her sister, even with all the obstacles and distance pushed between them. She turned back to face Hanabi and grabbed her hand.

"You think I don't love him?"

"Do you?"

"I think I do, better than that, I think I can learn to. I think he is the right one, I think he always was, and I think he can make me happy."

"Are you sure?"

"As much as one can be." With a last tight grasp on Hinata's hand, Hanabi let go of her sister.

"I still will kill him with my own hands if he screw up."

"Was that a pun?" said Hinata laughing softly.

"Oh my god, nee-san, I'm trying to be serious here!"

"I'm sorry!" she turned back to the mirror again.

"You're in a silly mood, almost too happy, you might be really in love," teased Hanabi.

"I told you so!" said her flushing.

"Hinata-sama" Neji's deep voice came from the corridor.

"He's here" Hinata whispered after she applied lipstick.

"Why is he here for?"

"He's taking me out."

"Taking you out? Like in a date? An actual date?"

"Isn't it natural? We're engaged."

"Oh, Hyuuga Neji taking someone on a date. The end is truly near."

"So dramatic" said an amused Hinata.

"Where he's taking you?" Hanabi's eyes bright with curiosity.

"I don't know, it supposed to be a surprise."

"What if he take you to ichiraku to show the moron what he's lost?"

"He would never" but she blushed imagining the scene.

"You never know, he might have a hidden petty personality."

"You're being silly. How do I look?"

Hanabi took her time scanning her sister from head to toe.

"Far too good for popsicle ass."

"You are impossible. I'm leaving" Hinata grabbed her purse and prepared to go.

"Hey, nee-san" Hinata turned one last time to her sister. "Have fun."

Hinata smiled brightly and Hanabi reminded of the saying about how women get more beautiful when they are in love. Her heart was filled with relieve.

"Thank you."


	8. Day 2 - Supernatural AU

**Supernatural creatures AU**

"Please, make me free, nii-san."

They had the same pair of uncommon white eyes, she said it was because he descended from her people, and as one of them, he should be respected like a brother.

"I don't know how."

"You just have to make a wish. There _must_ be something that you always wanted."

She begged from him the same thing every night, but he never complied. It wasn't by cruelty, but because he really didn't know what to do. He even tried to wish for something simple, anything, just for the wish's sake and to make her free, but it didn't work out as he planned.

"Please don't do that again. Never. When you make a wish about something you don't really desire you make my burden heavier. For you do make me free it must be the wish your heart's most deep and desperate desire."

It all started in a cold December night, he was at home, accompanied only for a bottle of bourbon, going through the stuff his late father left him, and among old pictures, documents, and family heirlooms; he found her box. It was a beautiful silver box, magically not darkened by the time – and lately he would discover that magic had indeed a lot to do with that box – it had strange symbols all over it, but he recognised his family crest among it. He opened the mysterious box and there she was. A vision of pastel silks and dark, almost bluish in that light, hair and wide expressive eyes.

She told him she was a fairy that was cursed, and locked inside that box, forced to realize people's wishes until the wish that would make her free.

He thought she was a dream caused by the cold and the alcohol, but there she was in the morning, as beautiful as he reminded, and decided to make his dreams come true.

The thing was, there was nothing that he really wanted, and after hurting her for wishing for a silly thing – a snow day, so he didn't have to go to work with a hangover – he was afraid of wishing for anything else.

His life wasn't perfect, no one's is, but he wasn't unhappy with his either. He had a job he liked, a comfortable house, loyal friends, and his relationship with his family could improve, but it wasn't completely hopeless either.

For seven months they lived together, and for seven months he searched in his heart for the thing he most desired without finding the answer, every night she would ask him to make her free.

In the meantime, they learned a lot of each other. She told him she came from a great noble family but they never waited anything big from her, that she missed her little sister that she haven't seen since her imprisonment. She had trouble with most modern world things since the last time she was awakened the telephones hadn't been invented yet, she liked to press flowers, and she always hummed softly when she was distracted.

The stranger thing about the whole chain of events was that he, whom always enjoyed his solitude, didn't mind her presence at all. Most of nights he was glad to come back to her. They talked about nothing and everything, and specially, they could stay together for hours in comfortable silence. Sometimes he caught himself missing her through his day at work, and when women asked him out he didn't feel like accepting anymore.

So, one night she asked again.

"What the wish your heart most deeply desire?"

And he knew. He finally knew.

"I have never wanted anything in this word as I want you."

And he couldn't say that she was entirely free after that, but she never had to go back to that box again.


	9. Day 3 - Sunflower

**Sunflower**

It was a miracle that he survived, the doctors said, but there were only small chances that he would ever wake up.

Most of the days, Hinata tried to be hopeful, or at least pretend that she was. But it was difficult, especially after the first year. The council started to press her father for euthanasia. They said it was dangerous to have a Hyuuga in such helpless state, but, thank goodness, her father was irreducible, he was not be responsible for the death of his little bother's son. Hinata who had been on edge during the whole business with the council, felt like she could breathe again when Neji was brought from the hospital for the Clan compound, where Hyuuga-sama decreed that he would be safe. He even tried to allocate him in the main branch's house, but that would be pushing too far and not even Hiashi was stupid enough to challenge the wrath of the council twice in a row.

Who didn't like the change was Team Gai, Lee couldn't visit Neji every three days anymore when he was moved into the compound and Tenten, who had once been her dear friend, became colder towards Hinata after the war. Silently blaming her for almost losing her teammate. Hinata didn't hold it against her, and truly believed that the treatment was well deserved, after all, she knew what made Neji to protect her with his own body and she was certain that Tenten knew too.

In the mornings the first thing she would do was visit him, and silently ask for questions she already knew the answers.

"Why did you do that, nii-san?" she would ask silently, holding his cold limp hand with a familiarity she would never have if he had his eyes wide open.

Nevertheless, the answer as clear as water, and no matter how many times she asked it would not change. The truth was unchangeable just like his expression that stood serene and lifeless.

In the second year, Naruto started to pursue her, and she didn't know how to react. "But wasn't that what you've always wanted?" Hanabi would ask and she would agree. However, if Naruto was all she always wanted, why she felt dirty and disloyal every time he held her hand or smiled at her? When she finally did let him kiss her, six months after they started going out, she ran to Neji's room and cried the whole night holding his hand.

"He won't wake, you know" Tenten said one afternoon in which she received authorization to visit Neji. "Your guilty won't bring him back."

They never really went back being friends, at least not the way they were before, and the sunny and outspoken Tenten always addressed her with a note of resentment.

"I know, but I don't feel right when I think about just moving on from him."

"Naruto won't wait for you forever, either. You already stopped one life, don't do this to another."

But he waited for more four years until she finally decided to accept his propose.

Neji woke up from the coma in the same day Boruto completed four years old.

And the day she went to see him was the most difficult day of her life.

He was still asleep when she entered his room, and she couldn't stop noticing how frail he looked, even though his aristocrat features were still there. But the lines of his face were more sharp, his cheeks were hollow, and there were dark marks under his eyes.

"Don't look to me like that, Hinata-sama" said him opening his eyes and making her almost let go of the sunflowers she was holding.

She put the flowers in the empty vase beside his bed and sat on the chair. She didn't know what to say. She have been talking to him for a decade, now that he was actually listening the words died in her throat.

She felt him looking at her, maybe trying to find the differences between the woman he loved and the stranger in his room.

"They said you got married" he sighed, and even if his words stung she felt grateful for being able to listen to his voice again "I'm glad."

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I should have waited."

He almost smiled.

"For ten years? Don't be stupid."

"I'm sorry."

"Please, stop it. I don't want know if he doesn't make you happy. It would only make things worse."

She felt a tear slide through her cheek.

"I am happy, I promise" how could she not be? He was awake and alive.

"Good."

They stood in silence, she still crying softly, he examining the flowers she brought.

"I'm sorry."

"What?"

"I should have been like the flower and you the sun. My duty was to stay always by your side, following and facing you. I let you down, Hinata-sama."

"Please, don't say that."

"But it's the truth. Please, stop crying. Aren't you happy to see me?"

"I am, I'm so happy. I know I'm selfish to ask that, but please never leave again, Neji-nii-san."

"I won't, I promise. I won't fail my duty again."

"I'm not a Hyuuga anymore, you don't owe anything to me."

"You'll always be Hyuuga, Hinata-sama."

She came back every day after that, and was the person responsible to help him though recovery, and when Himawari came a year after, she had chestnut hair.


	10. Day 4 - Tradition

**Tradition**

Hiashi hated tradition.

It was tradition what determined that he had to marry a weak women whose body was found floating on Nakano's river waters the morning after her lover was proclaimed killed in action.

It was tradition what took his brother from him so early in his life, when he didn't even could grasp why someone so similar to him had such a different destiny. And was also tradition the reason why he couldn't protect his little brother in the end.

Free men could choose to be shinobi or civilian, Hiashi could not. Tradition dictated that he not even had to be a shinobi but the best of his clan, but also thanks to tradition none of his talent could be used to protect his village because he was the firstborn of Hyuuga Hiroaki and was meant to be the next leader.

All of this meddling with his life, his loveless marriage, the resentment of his brother made Hyuuga Hiashi despise tradition, and this feeling grew even stronger when his wife bore a daughter for the first time.

A daughter was not what traditionally was expected from him. Especially when his younger brother was able to bring a son to the world in the previous year. A son who each day grew stronger, a son born from a bloodline as pure as his daughter but different from Hinata, a son brought by love.

But it was only after a decade since his first child was born that he decided to do something to stop tradition's trail of disgraces. He would not let it destroy his child's life as it had made with his and his brother's. The child was weak, and he didn't see any other way to save her. He then challenged tradition, going against his own father and the whole council, he broke the curse mark from Hizashi's son in exchange for his oath that he would protect his weak daughter, and lead the Clan, starting a new era in which tradition wouldn't encage the Hyuuga's destiny anymore.


	11. Day 6 - Gravity

**Gravity**

It wasn't willingly that he loved her. And it didn't start like most of love stories, he actually couldn't remember the start. Maybe it was when he first saw her? But that would be silly wouldn't it? How could he say that he fell in love when he was four? It would be something stupid wouldn't it? Toddlers do not fall in love. I might have been that awful day, the day he almost killed her, she was so brave, she shone so brightly, and ripped the door of his heart open, voicing publicly thoughts and feelings he had never even had the courage to acknowledge himself privately. But he was so full of anger back then, did it had space within him for love? He wasn't sure. And there was those three years that they took to get to know each other again, in which he became her teacher, but was him who learned so much from her. But when he thought of that time, he couldn't remember the exactly moment his heart became hers. Mostly it felt like it always belonged to her, but that couldn't be true either.

I wasn't willingly that he loved her. Sure, she had many qualities, but she was someone defined by how lacking she was. He, being a genius, was the opposite. While she struggled to reach the bare minimum, he was at the top effortlessly. How could he love someone who was apparently so inferior? Yes, she, unlike him, was highborn, but even their clan leader, her own father, would rather have him instead of the disgraced heiress. Yet, for someone who vailed pride and accomplishment as he did, he couldn't care less about any of that when he looked at her. She would never win a fight against him, but that wasn't what she was for, wasn't he meant to protect her after all? And she had many strengths that he would never have. When they talked, he realized that she saw reality very differently from him. Her world seamed bigger, brighter, and full of possibilities, very unlike his pragmatic universe, and that way of see things was a talent to, one that he didn't have.

Still it didn't feel like he loved her willingly, and it didn't make any sense no matter of how hard he thought about it. But what he knew was that to him, she was like the sun. Her pull irresistible, and it might be not willingly that he loved her, he might never know when or where it started or why her from all people, but he did love her, so much, and he couldn't do a thing about it, just let his heart be dragged by her gravity force.


	12. Day 7 - Time

**Time**

The thing you are the most grateful for is time.

You realise that while you help your youngest to dress his kimono for his first memorial ceremony of the end of the birdcage seal.

You think about how this is not the life you dreamed about when you were young, but a cold wind blows though your heart when you think about a life in which you have never listened to your son's babbler. He is a lot like is father in appearance, but he likes to chat, and his grandfather says it will one day be a useful talent to use dealing with the council. Those are the things that make you be so amazed by time's power, the miracle that is the child in your arms, and the shock that is hearing your father treating the grandchildren you gave him such differently from how he treated you.

You heard once that time is a wise god, and you can't agree more, when are white the eyes you first see when you wake up. They might seem cold for other people, but to you they are always the most sincere eyes you have ever encountered. They are the eyes of the man who almost died for you, the eyes that followed you in every step not for duty, as you once thought, but for fear of losing sight of you, for dread of letting you ever feel forsaken again, but especially because they wanted to be the first eyes to witness your rise. And they were never as clear and sincere than that day when their owner decided that his feelings shouldn't remain a secret any longer. They are the eyes that silently tell you that none of these feelings changed through the years in each breaking dawn.

Time was kind to you; you decide looking at your hand as he hold it under the table, protected from judgmental eyes. It gave you far more than you bargained for, and sometimes you even wonder if you deserve this kind of happiness.


	13. Day 2 - Hyuuga Politics

**Hyuuga Politics**

When he stood next to her during the brief moments of wait until the council didn't call for her, each facing the contrary direction, her to the closed doors, him to the courtyard, he never wanted more to break protocol, to touch her, hold her hand, tell her that he would be beside her no matter what happened. But he didn't. He knew what she needed the most was the protocol, the tradition.

So, when the door opened, his whole arm itched, the back of his hand almost touching hers, but he held himself in place, and when the doors closed he felt like they swallowed her and the hours he stood there, waiting, guarding, was the most tortuous of his life.

She didn't have the best of the expressions when she left the room, and never he hated more the fringes hiding her forehead. They didn't talk, she wasn't allowed to talk to him while he was in council guarding duty, but he received the small scroll of paper she slipped into his hand before leaving.

He opened the scroll first thing after been dismissed that evening, it said, "Meet me in Hikari's garden".

Hikari was Hinata's mother, the person from which she had inherited her indigo hair and her love for flowers, the person who didn't love her enough to stay. She loved Hizashi Hyuuga, but it was arranged for her to marry his older brother, and she tried, she really wanted to love her husband, but after Hizashi died she started withering like the flowers of her abandoned garden, and, after have boring Hiashi a second daughter, she decided enough was enough. It was a mystery if Hiashi ever loved his wife, but he named her favourite garden after her and Hinata made sure it never become unattended again.

There she was, under the stars and among the white tulips.

"What happened?" he was direct, unable to keep his anxiety anymore.

"I'm fine" she answered the question he didn't dare to voice, "they didn't seal me."

Heavens, he wanted to hold her.

"But they said they will seal Hanabi, nii-san, I can't let this happen, I just can't."

He walked a little closer to her, almost invading her personal space.

"We won't. There will be a way, what did Hiashi-sama said?"

"Oh, he's not happy. He didn't like that Hanabi chose to step down, and he's not exactly jumping with happiness with the prospects of having me as his heiress again."

He noticed the bitterness in her voice.

"Nevertheless, I do not believe he will let her to be sealed without a fight."

"That is truth."

She sighed, then smiled, looking to him through her dark eyelashes.

"It's so weird, you didn't say anything I didn't already know, but I really feel calmer after talking to you."

He felt warmth spreading over his chest but said nothing.

The ceremony of her reinstating as the heiress and Hiashi's successor was a small and quick for such an important affair. He was there too, at the door, was a bunke member was allowed to be, guarding and disguising his nervousness.

And when she got out of the room, she spared him a firm smile.

No surprise for Neji, Hanabi wasn't sealed. And she even got special permission to go on missions and join a team. Both conquests from Hinata's battles as the new addition to the council, even though they still firmly believed that Hinata's position was just temporary and Hanabi would usurp her eventually, they would all die before letting Hinata get anything easily.

But if something really astonished Neji, was how Hiashi's position changed, from the one whom deposed Hinata, now he was her stronger asset. Hinata told Neji that things changed after the clan leader had a heated conversation with both of his daughters. Hanabi was firm on her resolve, she didn't want to be the next clan leader, it was not her position to take and it was something that was getting in between her and her dreams. In other hand, all Hinata wanted was to change the clan, to make it fair for everyone, and she needed to be the leader do to so.

Neji already knew Hinata's plans, most of them featured him as her support, for changing the clan was his dream too.

Hiashi was not close to step down, but every year it was becoming clear and clearer that Hinata wasn't either. And small changes was being made, first her sister, than she started pressing for the children to be sealed when they get older, then for the seal activation to be declared forbidden. Every victory coming from tenacious battle, they said she was like water, insistent, perseverant.

He would come to her room every night and they could discuss their next steps, because they were together in that, even if no one saw his importance, for he placed himself in the shadows believing that from afar was the best place to protect her and the future they so yearned for. They didn't only talk about work, or the plans for changing the clan, they talked about everything and nothing, and as tiredness would take the toll of them, the conversation would take strange paths to gibberish and silliness. It was in those moments that Hinata was reminded of how young they were and how human Neji could be when tired, she would always try to bring those moments up when he was most like himself and he would deny everything. After all, as she spent those moments finding out things about him, he was using nonsense to hide how the difficult issue in his mind: how could he say what he needed desperately to say? He feared that by doing so he would ruin their relationship or put her in danger, but every day is was harder and harder to keep it disclosed. They went through so much together, side by side, they shared everything, he was even the one whom the shoulder she cried when her childhood love appeared engaged to his best friend, she was the first he saw when he came from the most traumatizing mission he even went. He couldn't ruin that for selfish reasons.

But, the council started regarding Hinata as dangerous to the maintain of the clan's old ways and, one night, there was an assassination attempt that could have been successful if Neji wasn't there.

And, instead of investigating whom tried to kill the clan's heiress, the council was more preoccupied about Hinata's virtue as a unmarried young woman that received a man in her bedchamber at late hours.

Hinata was livid, Hiashi almost lost his control and physically assaulted the councilman that brought the issue, Neji felt like reviving his childhood dreams of mass assassination. But, in the end, they didn't find an entire satisfactory way around the issue, Hinata, like her mother, would have to marry for the clan's will.

But as she reminded the whole council the next day, she was not her mother, and she would chose whom she was marrying.

"Do you really want to do this?"

"I should be asking this myself. I'll have to marry if I want to be clan leader, you…" she sighed "you don't owe me anything."

So, he finally gave in to the itch to touch her, reaching for her hand. Hinata looked up, eyes wide in surprise.

"But I owe you so much."

"Neji… Don't sacrifice yourself for me."

"I have been keeping this secret for so long, Hinata-sama, marrying you wouldn't be a sacrifice at all."

She swallowed.

"Are you sure?" she asked with a weak voice.

He took her hand to his lips, eyes fixed in her.

"Yes."

After that day, he didn't need to be in the shadows anymore, but by her side and under the warmth of her sun.


	14. Day 3 - Shattered

**Shattered**

Hanabi stared at her, a deep crease on her brow making her preoccupation evident, Hinata pretended to ignore her little sister, she knew the conversation that would follow if she acknowledged that behaviour.

"How come someone who sleeps that much have dark circles under the eyes?"

Hinata sighed but said nothing.

"You should see a doctor, nee-san… Please."

Her heart constricted by the pain-filled tone of her little sister's tone.

"I'm fine, Hanabi" and stopped stirring her uneaten porridge and left the table.

Hanabi wasn't wrong about the time she spent sleeping, but in her dreams she found piece, in her dreams he was always there.

It should make her feel guilty that the war that destroyed so many lives was the heaven she kept coming back to every night, but she couldn't help herself. For in dreams they were together again. Grim and sweat on his skin but no blood, never blood, and he would hold her like he never did in life, in the painful reality she had to endure, in dreams he would kiss her like he should have done when they had the opportunity, and she wouldn't think about anything else.

But then she would awake, and she was still alone, and he was still gone, and she would be forced to go on with the life he died to protect. She wanted to be grateful, she wanted to see what he saw in her, but every time she looked at the mirror, she saw nothing worth of his life. Once the hatred being to strong that she punched the the mirror in her room just to have to face a million shattered pieces of her own pale grieving face, each one reflecting her loneliness.


	15. Day 4 - Weak Spot

**Weak Spot**

"Stop it."

"No" her voice sounded as soft was his was hard, still the defiance was resolute and unshakeable.

"I cannot fight like that."

"W-well, you will have to."

He sighed, dropping his fighting stance.

"Hinata-sama…" he turned around to face her, byakugan still activated, she jumped and with a flip was behind him again. "Hinata-sama, please stop it!"

"N-no, you stop. I won't be on your visual field all the time and you cannot let your blind spot unprotected just because you can't trust me to protect it."

They had a mission the next week, the first they took together after the engagement. Neji had always been difficult when the subject was her safety, but this time, in Hinata's opinion, he was taking it to ridiculous, for not to say offensive, levels.

"My weak spot does not need your protection" he didn't meant for it to sound as cold as it sounded, after the words were out of his mouth he grimaced.

"Why did you accept this mission if you believe I'm not good enough to be your partner?"

She sounded really hurt, and as grateful he was for not being able to see it on her face, all he wanted was to hold her and tell her that she was getting it all wrong, but he knew she would change places again, or worse, leave, and he couldn't risk it, he almost could see her in that position.

"I have not said that."

"What _are_ you saying then?"

"Hinata-sama… I trust you with my heart and with my life, you know that. But you shouldn't be the one to protect me. I am your shield, not the contrary."

"In this mission, we will be partners, you won't be my shadow."

He smiled.

"I'll always be your shadow. And you are my light, that's why I need to have you always on my field of vision."

She didn't reply instantly after that, but he heard soft steps and soon she was in front of him, like he wanted, seeing hers was too, he deactivated his byakugan.

"Don't think you'll get away just saying this lot of mushy stuff."

He took her hand and pulled her towards him, marvelling with the red tinting her cheeks and the desire in her eyes.

"It seems like I just did."


End file.
